NASCAR racer Ryan Newman tells high school students of the importance of education

TALLADEGA, Alabama - Life is not as simple as driving fast and turning left, NASCAR No. 39 Ryan Newman told students gathered at the Talladega Superspeedway today.

It's about science. And mathematics. And academics.

If you don't learn your way around the track of life, you will never get to the finish line. At least not at the front of the pack.

"Education is extremely important," Newman told more than 400 high school students. "My parents told me I needed to go to college for two reasons: to supplement my racing career and to have something to fall back on if my racing career didn't work out."

He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in engineering. He said science, math, engineering and technology - known as STEM subjects - play an important role in race car driving.

Students were at Talladega Superspeedway for the U.S. Army's annual Strength for the Future education program, facing off against Army soldiers in feats of strength, scaling a rock-climbing wall and getting turned upside-down in an Apache helicopter simulator.

More than 30 high schools attended the event -- held during race weekend -- including Mountain Brook and Clay Chalkville.

Tevin Burrow, a senior at Clay Chalkville, said the event was a get-out-of-school card, but he enjoyed it because he watches NASCAR.

"It's straight," he said. "I like when the camera turns around and shows all the rednecks."

Jill Covington, a business teacher at Mountain Brook High School, said her students enjoy coming, because many of them are interested in sports management careers.

"It does give them an overview of jobs in sports marketing and team building exercises," she said.